The short answer is: No, they're laughing at him.
There were so many diaries yesterday about each and every gaffe Romney made, that I couldn't keep up. I would finish reading one diary, and there would be 10 more on the Recent Diary list. A huge portion of the Internet was exploding with shock, and then laughter, at just about every thing Romney said and every move he made.
Now that the dust is settling down a bit, and the pundits and politicians are weighing in, with some pundits saying that this will all blow over once the games actually begin, when the Republican VP candidate is announced, after the Republicans hold their convention and we get to watch the debates, come election day in November, Romney's missteps in London will be overshadowed by other events. Really?
This is, of course, significantly worse for Romney than if Britain was indeed furious. In America, foreign anger can sometimes be alchemised into a popularity boost, especially for a right-wing candidate: from time to time, the insinuation goes, American exceptionalism and muscular truth-talking is bound to to piss off the envious has-been Europeans. But being laughed at is different. Almost nobody bothers to pretend, these days, that Britain has sufficient global clout that any anger directed America's way would matter that much. But ridicule taps something deeper and older. And it bothers many people – perhaps especially proud American exceptionalists – much more.
Romney's problem is that a few hundred thousand more non-Americans now see him as a figure of fun – the kind of preposterous person who might, for example, commission a commemorative Olympic tie pin in the shape of his own face. That's not a (sorry about this) "game changer", in electoral terms. But it might register.
How furious is Britain at Mitt's insults? I'm going with 'not at all'
In his attempt to polish his foreign policy credentials, Willard Mitt Romney, started his overseas tour by making himself a laughing stock and the butt of endless jokes. (See the twitter hashtags
#Romneyshambles,
#AmericanBorat,
MittTheTwit and
#MittHitstheFan). It might have been better for Romney if he had actually done something to anger the Brits because Republicans could come to his defense and rally around him. But, when even
Karl Rove thinks he blew it in London, Romney has a really big problem.
Romney might want to endlessly talk about the economy, and nothing but the economy, but when election day arrives, and Americans voters think about the bigger picture, they will remember that Romney was a laughing stock on the international stage. As one British commenter posted at the article linked to above:
For the most part I look at Romney with a sort of bemused indifference.
Then I realise how many people are actually serious about him becoming the President of the United States. To have his finger on the button. And then, I become fucking terrified.
To be honest though, this particular gaffe is one of the few things he's said that vaguely borders on truth.
Ah, humor! You can be an eyeopener. First we laugh, and then we realize this isn't so funny after all when we think about the fact that there are some people who honestly believe Romney is qualified to be President of the United States.